Eden (32 page)

My body shook uncontrollably. Just as
the pain subsided, movement outside the windows caught my
attention. The guard at the door made a noise and shifted. He was
nervous. Jared was here.

The shadows of the shells weaved back
and forth. There was a large explosion, then a blotch of crimson
sprayed against the mud on the glass, highlighted by a ball of
fire. The glass broke, and my husband pushed through, his eyes wild
but focused. He immediately attacked the guard at the door, filling
the creature’s head with an entire clip of bullets. Once he fell to
the ground, Kim ran into the glass opening. She made her way to the
door, and closed it, holding her palms flat against the
metal.

“
I got it!” she said. She
was covered in blood, and noticeably injured.

“
Are you okay?” I called
to her.

She smiled. “Never been better. You
just worry about delivering that ba—”

Before she could finish her sentence,
a shell burst through the broken glass and pointed his gun at Kim.
She turned, her eyes wide.

“
No!” I
screamed.

Jared charged the shell, but was too
late. The bullet burst through Kim’s chest, blowing her back
against the door.

“
Kim!” I cried, watching
her limp body slide down the door to the ground. Her eyes were
open, but she was dead before she hit the floor. “Kim!”

“
Nina!” Jared yelled,
running to me. He slid on his knees and released me from the
restraints, and then slipped his backpack from his shoulders,
opening it and pulling out supplies.

Before I could speak, the overwhelming
spasms engulfed me. I wailed, but I wouldn’t push.

Jared checked between my legs, and his
eyes grew wide. “He’s crowning, sweetheart. Push.”

I shook my head. “She’s
dead.”

“
I know, but you have to
push.”

“
I can’t.”

Jared smiled. “Yes, you can. You’ve
done so well.”

I peeked at Kim. “They’re out there.
Waiting for him.”

Jared touched my cheek. “I’m here. I
won’t let anything happen to him.”

“
They abandoned us,” I
cried.

“
Who?” Jared said, laying
out sterile cloths.

“
Heaven! Where are they?
Where is Samuel?” The pain came again.

“
Nina, push!” Jared
said.

“
They’ll kill
him!”

Jared grabbed my hand and squeezed.
“Look at me,” he said, watching me as I panted. “I won’t let that
happen. We will protect him. Together.”

Tears welled up in my eyes. “I don’t
know if I can.”

“
You can, and you will.
Now, push!”

I nodded and pushed myself up on the
heels of my hands. When the contraction came, I pushed through it.
My voice was low and gruff and I grunted, using all of my remaining
strength.

Claire and Bex jumped through the
glass opening, and paused, seeing Kim’s body sitting still against
the door. They walked over to her. Claire gently shut her eyes, and
then she rushed over to me. She got on her knees behind me, and
hooked her elbows under my arms.

I stared at Kim, but Claire used her
cheek to bar my line of sight. “Don’t look, honey.”

I wailed, mourning for my friend.
Claire hugged me tight. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” she repeated,
over and over.

Ryan leaned against the opposite wall,
his rifle in hand, tears drawing clean lines down his dirty
face.

“
Could you grab a cloth
and wipe her forehead?” Claire said. Ryan didn’t hesitate, digging
through the pack and then patting down my brow. He combed back my
wet hair with his fingers and then kissed my cheek. “Doing good,
Nigh. Hang in there.”

I began to speak, but the urge to push
came again, so I heaved. I pushed so hard that my body trembled.
Yelling seemed to help, so I did. I yelled, and screamed, and cried
out. I cried for Kim, and for the pain, and for fear of what would
happen once Bean was vulnerable.

Jared held open my shaking knees.
“You’re almost there, Nina.”

Just as he said the words, the baby
seemed to spill out of me and into Jared’s arms.

He laughed out loud, in shock, holding
his blood-covered child in his arms.

Claire helped me to relax back against
the cushion, and then she assisted Jared in cleaning off the infant
and cutting the cord.

Bex pushed his back against the door.
“We’ve got some nasty ones on the way! They’re boiling up straight
from Hell!”

Ryan gripped his rifle, and Claire
stood. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “They’ve sent an entire
Legion.”

Chapter
Twenty-One

Mother

There is a distinct difference between the
ability to create life and the innate need to protect it, to
cherish it. Appreciating that life is the one being you love most
in the universe becomes duty, and as a direct result, one must
neglect all else to preserve it.

The mother that throws herself in front of an
oncoming car, the mother that eats a can of generic peaches when
the last bit of food isn’t enough to share, the mother that wears a
ratty dress to work so that she can keep much-needed shoes on those
tiny, precious feet…that is the distinction of a mother’s love:
self-sacrifice.

The moment I heard the cries of the tiny,
gooey baby in Jared’s arms, nothing else mattered. Not even
me.

“Is he okay?” I asked.

“Uh...yeah. She’s okay.”

“She
?” I
said, stunned. I had prepared myself for almost everything that
could happen when I delivered. A girl was not one of
them.

“It’s a girl?” Claire squealed.

“It’s a girl?” Bex groaned.

Jared wrapped her in a clean blanket, and
carefully lifted the tiny bundle to look into her eyes. He had no
expression except for the smallest hint of a smile. His eyes
focused on me, and then put her in my arms as if he were passing on
the most fragile, priceless, precious treasure in
existence.

I nestled her in the crook of my arm, and
until that moment the times I thought I had sacrificed seemed
trivial. Everything and everyone in my life was less important,
less urgent. My life was simply an extension of the tiny, soft,
innocent wonderment before me. I knew how millions of other women
before me could behave so erratic, be so forgiving, and so
courageous. My heart was no longer on the inside of my body. It was
in my arms.

“Jared?” Bex said. With one hand he held the
door closed, with other, he gently slid Kim’s lifeless body away
from the door and against the wall.

A loud bang vibrated the wall, and Bex flew
back, skidding across the floor. The door blew open, and creatures
filed into the room, immediately attacking. A foul odor filled the
room, and I held my baby close to me. Jared stayed close, violently
fending off any demons that dared get close enough to his
family.

Every window on the opposite wall from the
door exploded. Jared covered us with his body to shield us from
flying glass. When the dust cleared, Samuel stepped into the room,
standing next to a familiar face in full armor.

“Michael,” Jared breathed, stunned. It was
Isaac’s father; his entire army of warrior angels behind
him.

The demons snarled and shrieked.

“You shall not touch this child,” Michael
said, drawing a long sword.

“Come!” Samuel challenged, raising his arms.
“We welcome Hell’s most terrible wrath!”

The demon that had taken me from the Sepulchre
lifted his head and bleated, and then led a charge into the
street.

Bex and Claire stood to the side, watching
hundreds of demons surge past them, casting off wind like a freight
train barreling through the room. The clash outside between Heaven
and Hell was audible, like nothing I’d ever heard before, and then
at once, it was silent, crossing planes.

Jared grabbed each side of my face with a
broad smile. “We did it, Nina! Heaven will protect her!”

I sighed with relief and hugged my daughter to
my chest. The quiet we shared was frozen in time. The end of the
war around us was instantaneous. Bex, Ryan, Claire and Jared all
looked in wonder at my little girl. She lay still, peering around
with her big, round, cloudy eyes, blinking at the bright
light.

Jared kneeled before me, still breathing hard,
his face red and marked with shades of blood and dirt from his
fight to reach us. Ryan and Claire crowded around us, their worried
expressions softened by the sight of the child wrapped in my
arms.

“You’re amazing,” Jared said. His voice
cracked an infinitesimal amount as he spoke, but I couldn’t look
away to see his expression. The little girl in my arms was
breathtaking.

Claire took a few silent steps until she was
next to me. She rubbed her palm on her jeans and then reached out
her small hand, extending her index finger to touch the baby’s
pinky. “She’s…here,” she whispered, in awe.

“You did it,” Ryan said with a
half-smile.

Jared crawled to the opposite side of Claire,
tenderly putting one arm behind my neck, the other touching his
daughter’s cheek with his thumb. He kissed my hair and leaned in to
whisper in my ear. “I didn’t think I could love you more than I
already did.”

I looked into his eyes and smiled. “You did
it, Jared. You saved us.”

Jared’s blue-grey eyes glossed over, and he
pulled me closer, the three of us in a tender embrace.

After a few quiet moments, Jared’s arms
tensed, and he looked to the doorway. Claire flipped around, her
hands balled into fists at her side. Bex stood in front of my
makeshift bed, crouched in a defensive stance.

Ryan quickly cocked his gun and aimed at the
door, ready for whatever the Hybrids were bracing for. “What now?”
he said, his eyes focused at the same point as the
others.

Claire shoved Ryan against the wall and then
pointed at him. “Stay there,” she said firmly. “Don’t.
Move.”

Ryan lowered his weapon, and
waited.

The door opened slowly, and a man in a white
suit walked, slow and lithe, through the threshold. His hair was
shiny and black, his eyes deep-set and calm. He was beautiful and
grotesque at the same time; a baby-faced supermodel with eons of
hate and bitterness flowing through his veins.

Bex took a step, but Claire held out her hand
and flattened it against his chest, restraining him. “Stand next to
Ryan.”

“But…” Bex protested.

“Do it!” she growled. I’d never heard her take
that tone with her little brother.

The man’s eyes darted to the youngest Ryel,
his head unmoving. It was unnatural, frightening. Bex slowly walked
to the wall, wary of the pair of eyes that studied his every
move.

I pulled my infant daughter closer to me,
turning slightly so that my shoulder was in a position to protect
her. I didn’t notice the movement until I realized it had drawn the
man’s attention back to us.

“Desecration,” the man breathed. His was more
of a hiss than a voice. “Even more than your father.”

“Do not speak to her,” Jared said, his tone
low and terrifying.

Ryan looked to Claire. He was confused and
worried, but he didn’t move.

The man took another step.

Jared stood, and lifted his hand, pointing at
the black-haired man. “She belongs to Him. You can’t touch her. You
may kill us all, but He’s commanded that she live.”

The man took in a deep breath through his
nose, his eyes rolling back into his head. His lids shuttered, and
then popped open, focusing on the baby. When he spoke, his voice
was many; distant and loud simultaneously. “If you’ve noticed, I
quite enjoy doing things He forbids.”

“Should I shoot?” Ryan whispered out of the
corner of his mouth.

“No,” Claire said, her voice strained. “Don’t
move.”

Ryan frowned, clearly unsettled. “What is
it?”

“The Devil,” Bex said.

The man’s pupils bled into the whites of his
eyes, the darkness inside them glistening from the light of the
fire outside. He took another step.

A large vein bulged from his pasty forehead as
his calculating eyes targeted my daughter.

Jared didn’t wait for him to take another
step. He charged, stopping abruptly when the Devil grabbed him by
the throat. Claire immediately reacted, attacking him with
astounding speed. Her small body flew against the wall, and Ryan
reacted.

She held up hand. “Don’t,” she said,
standing.

Jared managed to pull free, and then he
attacked him again with a series of punches. They traded blows, and
suddenly Jared was struck to the ground. Claire rushed Satan again,
but she was blown back, this time held by an unseen force high
against the wall. She screamed in agony as dozens of deep, bloody
gashes formed across her face, neck and body. Blood oozed from her
wounds and down the front of her clothes, dripping from her shoes
onto the floor beneath her.